If you’ve searched for Funimation’s YouTube channel, you won’t find it. The channel has been renamed to Crunchyroll dubs. While the name has changed, the previous offering has not changed. Anime News Network reports that it will continue to stream trailers, clips and episodes of English-dubbed anime.
Crunchyroll’s YouTube content with English subtitles can be seen on the Crunchyroll Collections channel. (Calling it Crunchyroll Subs seems like a missed opportunity, right? Maybe!)
This is the latest merger of Funimation and Crunchyroll into a single anime streaming powerhouse – but under the latter’s branding. Earlier this spring than ANN notes that it was announced that the Funimation and Wakanim anime catalog and simulcast content were also moved to Crunchyroll.
This convergence should not come as a surprise. As early as December 2020, Sony’s Funimation announced it had bought Crunchyroll from AT&T for over $1 billion — what, when igamesnews‘s Ian Walker noticed is a lot of anime characters! The deal was completed in August 2021 with the final purchase price $1.175 billion — which is right now more Anime characters.
“Aligning Crunchyroll and Funimation will allow us to get even closer to the creators and fans who form the heart of the anime community,” said Kenichiro Yoshida, chairman, president and CEO of Sony Group Corporation, at the time.
“Our goal is to create a unified anime subscription experience as quickly as possible,” added Tony Vinciquerra, Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. Hey, they weren’t joking!
entertainment was bought by Sony in 2017 for just $149 million. That price seems like a steal compared to what the company paid for Crunchyroll. (Everything has gotten really expensive, even for multinational mega-corporations buying hugely popular anime streaming services.)
The unified anime subscription simplifies things, which many users welcome. But no doubt longtime subscribers will miss the Funimation logo and intros. i know i will
